Secondary 7-12 Focus on Instruction
March 2020
Focus on Teamwork
I want to start with a huge shout-out to everyone who helped make this year's spring benchmarks go smoothly! If you played an integral part or just waited patiently while we worked out an issue, you were amazing. I am also incredibly proud of our teachers across the board. We have some seriously amazing staff here at the secondary campuses. Lots of teachers pulled some amazing growth out of the last few months of instruction, and everyone immediately jumped in to analyze the data and start planning for those standards and clusters that need refinement before the big tests.
Staff at the high school have rallied behind the English department, and many teachers who teach other subjects are helping with English I & II EOC test prep during Panther Den since these are the first tests coming up this year. Several have put aside their own tested subjects for a few weeks to pitch in, and others have rearranged extra curricular projects. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed!
Our CTE pathways and courses are growing and becoming more streamlined! The junior high and high school campuses have been working together to expose junior high students to potential paths they could take in high school, as well as expanding access to introductory courses so students can begin on those pathways sooner and increase their chances of leaving high school with industry certifications and experience.
When we work together, student benefit!
IC Corner
One that keeps sticking out to me is teacher clarity, with an effect size of 0.75. It is so easy to make our intentions and plans clear to our students, and can be so powerful! Plan out every lesson with a specific end goal in mind. Then share that with students. Tell them exactly what your end goal for that lesson is.
Who's looking forward to spring break? I know I am. But what if you didn't know when spring break was? What if you were told to prepare kids for a test, but didn't know when that test would be given? How would you feel? Frustrated. Anxious. Eventually you'd burn out. That's what our students experience. They are told they have to come to class, but if we don't communicate to them why we're doing what we're doing and what/when the end goal is, they're going to burn out on us. They're going to check out much faster. If we just share those objectives and sequences, students have that end goal in mind every day. It can be as easy as writing it on the board, or posting the lesson objective and timeline in the same place every day. Get specific with your planning, share that with students, and take advantage of that effect size!
Effect sizes
Visible Learning has an amazing database with every studied influence. It is updated as new metanalyses are analyzed and added. It also does an excellent job of explaining what they mean.
TCEA put out a web app that hosts several influences with high effect sizes and how to implement them in the classroom.
Implementing TRS
Westwood University
Haley Avery
Email: hbavery@westwoodisd.net
Website: www.westwoodisd.net
Location: HS Rm 151, JH Rm 209
Phone: (903) 480-0336
Twitter: @haleybavery